Tangerine Dream In A Paint Can

Tangerine Dream Custom Color

One of the many reasons why letterpress is special is being able to mix and match colors by hand. A drawback for the makers would be running out of color and having to exact match again.

Rhythm is crucial in making good work and work more pleasing. I know I am more focused and creative in the a.m. and this makes for a good rhythm, but I have to negotiate my time. Design and letterpress printing comes in phases. The brainstorming and design phase, preparation phase, and finally the print and assemble phase. Mixing color would fall into the prep phase, but it use to be in the later for me. I would mix color and print, and if I didn’t have enough time to finish, I’d pick up where I left off a day or two later. I would conserve color in left over play dough containers that I guess work for a limited time, and there was the extra consolation and pride in the fact that I was finding ways of saving and reusing objects otherwise meant for the bin. But these containers are meant for play dough and even it goes hard all the way through over time. Nailing exact color matches by hand on separate days, I’d say. is really an expletive.

miniature paint cans for custom colors

Mixing and matching color is a creative science. You observe, take your knowledge of how color combining works to create a new color and then adjust with a bit more of this or that. When I first started printing, I made the over zealous mistake of starting off with large amounts of paint. By the time I would adjust, this already big puddle of paint would double and maybe not even then would I get the right match. This would equate into a big snafu and waste of resources.

Tangerine Dream in a can

And then the, “Why haven’t I thought of this before?” moment came when I figured I could contact a local paint shop to see if they sold empty sample containers. Now I can mix quantity and store it for when I am ready to print. I can devote energy to mixing and matching and prepping my machine one day and printing on another. These are what dreams are made of for some.